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Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and director Stanley Donen looked to the past as inspiration for Indiscreet, a glittering 1958 romantic comedy, which echoes such classic films of Hollywood's past as The Awful Truth (1937) and My Favorite Wife (1940). In doing so, they set the future course for Donen and Bergman's careers.

The impetus for Indiscreet came from a less successful film, Kiss Them for Me (1957), the first to team Grant and Donen. Although the picture did not do well, former acrobat Grant and former dancer Donen so enjoyed working together that they began looking for another chance to team up. Donen had already passed on a script by Norman Krasna that would eventually become Let's Make Love (1960), with Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand. At the time, he told Krasna that he loved the plot of his play Kind Sir, in which Charles Boyer courts Mary Martin while pretending to be a married man. On Broadway, it had been one of the biggest flops of 1953. As a result, nobody had bid on the movie rights, which Donen picked up for just $10,000. He and Grant even formed their own production company, Grandon, to make the film for Warner Bros.

Adapted by Norman Krasna from his play Kind Sir, Indiscreet stars Ingrid Bergman as a wealthy actress and Cary Grant as an international financial wizard. While Grant is visiting London, Bergman's sister Phyllis Calvert and brother-in-law Cecil Parker introduce Grant to Bergman. Because he feels he has no time for marriage, Grant pretends to be married to avoid romantic tangles. Bergman, however, finds the prospect of an affair with a married man to be quite exhilarating. When she discovers the truth, Bergman gets even with the now-smitten Grant by faking a romance with an ex-boy friend--ordering luckless chauffeur David Kossoff to pose as her beau. A comedy by grownups, about grownups and for grownups (at least by 1958 standards), Indiscreet proved to be far more successful as a film than as a stage play.

Gary Tooze

January 21st, 2013